Join us on Saturday, April 16 from 1-3 pm on the grounds of Pottstown High School for this free event! PEAK, Pottstown’s school readiness initiative is partnering with Pottstown YMCA’s Healthy Kids Day. Fun family activities and resources from more than 40 community organizations are being planned along with music from D.J. Steve, moon bounce, celebrated mascots, and Pipper the Clown to name a few. The YMCA will be providing fitness activities and more. We thank Pottstown Memorial Medical Center http://www.PottstownMemorial.com for once again being the main sponsor for April’s PEAK Month of the Young Child events. For more information contact Jane Bennett – jbennett@pottstownsd.org or 610-256-6370, http://www.peakonline.org.

POTTSTOWN, PA – Gov. Tom Wolf may not have learned everything there is to know about “Beowulf” when he was a student at The Hill School, “but I did learn how to ask questions; I did learn how to think and I did learn how to live.”

Those were among the short lessons Wolf had for the students and guests Thursday night when he accepted the school’s 17th Annual Sixth Form Leadership Award.

“I came to Hill in the fifth form, so I was only here a brief time, but it made a big difference in my life. I came away from this place a much better person that I was when I came in,” said Wolf, who attended the school from 1965 to 1967.

During those years, he was on the swimming and soccer teams, was assistant editor at The Dial and played the sousaphone.

SAVE THE DATE!

FRIDAY, MARCH 27, 2015
GAME @ 6:30 P.M.

The Foundation for Pottstown Education is hosting a fundraising event in the Strom Gymnasium at Pottstown High School on Friday, March 27, 2015. The HARLEM WIZARDS Basketball Team is coming to town!

Members of our staff, alumni and students are being recruited to play against the Wizards. There will be plenty of fun, food, and prizes!

The elementary school that sells the most tickets to the event (over 200) will receive $1,000 from the Foundation! Either the Middle School or High School will receive $1,500 from the Foundation for selling the most tickets (over 250)! The checks for the winning two schools will be presented on Friday, March 27 at the game!

Please click on the links below to see what the evening will be like. Schools from Ohio, Red Lion, PA, and Ardmore, Pa are represented.

We will have food trucks as well as food sold at the concession stand. Come and eat your dinner and then enjoy the game!

Saturday, April 18, 2015, 1-3 pm

at the NEW LOCATION

Pottstown High School 750 N. Washington St.

Approximately 700 people attended this free event for Pottstown families with young children last year at the YMCA. We hope to see you this year at Pottstown High School! If your organization is able to participate by providing a family activity or other resources to support families, we provide the table and space at no cost. Please reply to Jane Bennett – jbennett@pottstownsd.org for questions or to confirm your participation.

Thanks for all you do to support that all Pottstown’s children enter kindergarten ready to learn and achieve. Join us and help celebrate Pottstown’s young children and families!!

Editor’s Note: We saw this on Facebook and feel it needs to be shared with the wider community. We understand and share this parent’s concern about the promotion of Pottstown and the Pottstown School District. In our humble opinion, Pottstown and Pottstown School District news should always take priority in the local paper. Far more disturbing is the son’s comment that “nobody cares about Pottstown”. How sad is this and what does it say about the prevailing attitude of Pottstonians if this despair has crept all the way down the ladder to school age children? At times this appears to be the prevailing attitude of the leadership, both paid and elected. This issue needs some serious discussion by the “powers that be” and this cycle of “nobody cares” needs to end. How will Pottstown ever recover with a defeatist attitude! Apparently, this attitude has been picked up on by “the rest of the world” and might be why articles like the recent one in the Philadelphia Inquirer get published.

I found myself very annoyed this morning. I went and bought my local HOMETOWN newspaper which is operated and ran in Pottstown. I looked on the front page and to my surprise and anger there is nothing about the Pottstown High School football team winning yesterday, but yet we put the Perk Valley vs. Methacton score on the front page. Now please don’t think that I am putting down the other schools, but to not have the school that resides where your paper is published on the front page was to be quite frank, appalling. My son, who happens to play for the Trojans, told me “what is the big deal Dad, no one cares about Pottstown”. News Alert: I care and there are people out there that do care. I’m sure there are people that agree with him but I am not one of them. I am a former grad who still supports his local team. How do we expect to move forward in this school district when our students have the mentality of no one cares about us, no big deal? Our town needs help and I just think that a putting some good news about the LOCAL KIDS would go a long way in changing people ‘s attitude. Rob Bertoti

POTTSTOWN, PA — Members of the Pottstown School Board showed little interest Thursday in an offer to refurbish the poles that hold up the lights at Grigg Memorial Stadium.

Facilities Director Robert Kripplebauer told the board’s facilities committee meeting Thursday that he had been contacted by a company that had read in The Mercury about the board’s decision to take down the lights at the stadium for safety reasons.

The company — 18th Century Restorations on Coventryville Road — made a similar offer in 2012 and estimated the cost at that time to refurbish the poles and lights to be $60,000.

According to the 2012 quote, which Kripplebauer shared with The Mercury, the work would involve “fabricating new hardware” for the poles and attaching 42 metal straps to keep them in place, as well as epoxy and caulk for cracks in the poles, along with other work.

Pottstown, PA – ArtFusion 19464 is partnering for the fourth year in a row with the Greater Pottstown Foundation to present an amazing $10,000 scholarship to a local high school student. The Greater Pottstown Foundation Scholarship for the Arts is designed to financially assist a qualified applicant in obtaining a degree from accredited academic institutions of higher learning for study in the arts. The program is open to any Pottstown, Pottsgrove, The Hill School, or Owen J. Roberts high school senior student preparing to enter or already accepted to an accredited degree-granting college or university.

The scholarship is awarded based on two criteria: artistic performance at the Greater Pottstown Foundation Scholarship Art Exhibit at ArtFusion 19464, and an essay on why the applicant wants to continue their education in the arts. For the first time, this year the scholarship will be open to those pursuing an arts minor as well as those who will pursue a major in an arts-related field.

Interested students must submit a completed application and essay by February 28, 2014. In addition to submitting the application and essay, students must also participate in the exhibit scheduled from May 31 to June 14. Applicants must submit a total of three pieces in specific mediums. Artwork that will be submitted for the scholarship need not be completed until dropoff for the exhibit in May.

ArtFusion 19464 is a 501(c)3 non-profit community art center located at 254 E. High St. in downtown Pottstown. The school offers day, evening and weekend classes to all ages. The goal of these classes is to help students develop their creative skills through self-expression and independence. ArtFusion’s gallery hosts rotating shows featuring local artists. The gallery also sells handcrafted, one-of-a-kind gift items. The gallery is open Tuesday through Friday from 10am-5pm and Saturday 10am-3pm. The gallery is closed Sunday and Monday.

Dayon Mohler, 18, Najee Johnson, 18, and Derrick Wilson, 17, were charged with multiple counts of felony aggravated assault and a series of misdemeanor charges including simple assault, possession of a weapon and reckless endangerment, and other related charges after they allegedly used a BB gun to shoot two teammates on Oct. 24.

According to police, the victims did not suffer serious injuries.

The trio drove around Evans and East streets after school dismissed around noon, police said. The two victims told police they were playing catch when they saw Mohler’s silver Toyota Corolla drive past and fire the BB gun. One victim was hit in the head, police said.

NORTH COVENTRY TOWNSHIP, PA — Police have charged a woman working as a loss prevention officer for Kohl’s at the Coventry Mall with assault of a local photographer.

Sarah Roller, 36, from Collegeville, reported she saw a man in his vehicle taking video of “police and her activity” while she was helping search for a suspect in a retail theft from Boscov’s, police said.

Roller is accused of approaching the photographer, Tom Kelly III, and attempted to take his camera “by force.” Kelly is a former Mercury staff photographer and frequently does work as a free-lancer for The Mercury and its related websites.

“During the struggle over the camera, the victim was struck in the face,” the report said. “He sustained an injury to his eye and is also being treated for neck and shoulder pain.”

POTTSTOWN — As the school year winds down, most of us have vacation on our minds, but in school district offices, its time to close the books on those who are leaving, and set the stage for those who are coming on board or moving up.

Key to that planning is putting personnel in place and among the many changes coming to Pottstown schools in September, is a long list of changes in personnel — and salary.

The changes began with the appointment of Jeffrey D. Hartman as the new principal at Pottstown High School, effective July 1.

Hartman, who will be paid $105,692, finished this school year as the principal of Phillipsburg-Osceola Senior High School in Centre County, where he has served since 2011.

POTTSTOWN, Pa. — The investigation into a Monday night crash that killed two people and critically injured a third shifted Thursday to a downtown store that allegedly sold synthetic marijuana to one of the crash victims.

According to court documents obtained exclusively by The Mercury Thursday, members of Pottstown’s Drug Task Force executed a search warrant at 315 and 317 E. High St., which houses a convenience store called the Achi Store.

As investigators were searching Tuesday for Roger Tracey Malloy, 27, of 303 N. York St., Pottstown, the driver in the fatal wreck, authorities learned that one of Malloy’s passengers, 16-year-old Kendall Harper, of Pottstown, had purchased K2, or synthetic marijuana, from the Achi Store, according to court papers filed seeking the warrant.

According to court papers, authorities learned in their investigation that Malloy has been smoking K2 and drinking before the crash occurred.

It’s that time of year again, Pottstown’s Annual FamilyFest. This year the event will occur on Thursday March 17, 2011 from 5 – 7 p.m. One big change for this year is the venue site; this year’s FamilyFest will be held at Pottstown High School. All the wonderful activities and food will be available on the same floor, with one big plus, no stairs to have to contend with! Our theme for this year is “Participate in Your Community: Pottstown Families Play, Work, & Serve Together”.

Family Fest is sponsored by the Pottstown Family Center, Pottstown Parks & Recreation & PEAK – Pottstown School District.

In a follow-up to Evan Brandt’s excellent article about Pottstown High School senior Shawn Szydlowski, this Roy’s Rants exclusive uncovers another injustice against a Pottstown High School senior without the happy ending.

Like fellow classmate Shawn Szydlowski, Paige Patton is a graduating senior at Pottstown High School. Paige Patton was a camp counselor at the Muscular Dystrophy AssociationVariety Club camp during June of 2009. However, unlike Shawn Szydlowski, Paige Patton tried working with the camp rather than the school district to resolve the scheduling conflicts between school and camp activities.

PHS Graduation and Baccalaureate rehearsals were June 10th and June 11th with graduation scheduled for June 14th. Camp orientation was scheduled for June 10th and 11th with camp running the week of June 12th through June 19th at the Variety Club’s Worcester Township site.

Graduating seniors were told if they missed practice, they could not walk for graduation. Paige took this warning seriously so she and her family tried contacting the MDA Camp Coordinator to work something out but their calls were not returned. Paige subsequently received a letter from the MDA stating her services as a camp counselor were not needed this year.

Paige formed a special bond with her camper last year. The camper and her family specifically requested Paige again for this year! Paige will also miss the camp graduation of another friend she made last summer because she is not allowed to attend camp.

Paige’s involvement with the MDA did not end with camp. Paige and her family made four trips from Pottstown to the MDA Broomall Office and helped stuff 2500 fundraising envelopes. Paige also held her own fundraiser at PHS. She received permission to miss class so she could sit in the hall and sell shamrocks for $1.00. Two gift baskets were made up and raffled off based on the shamrock sales. For each shamrock purchase, the buyer received a ticket(s) that were entered into a raffle. The winners received the gift baskets. Paige and her family then made another trip to the MDA’s Broomall office to drop off the $125.00 she raised.

Paige will be attending Montgomery County Community College, West Campus this fall where she will begin studying to become a special education teacher. The experience working with Muscular Dystrophy campers is related to what she will be studying in college. It is a shame that someone who worked so hard to support the Muscular Dystrophy Association had to make a choice between graduation and volunteering as a camp counselor. Furthermore, to be dismissed without even a return phone call and a curt letter is shameful.

I would suspect people are not lining up to be camp counselors for disabled children. The school district and the camp need to be more flexible when working with students who are trying to give of themselves to help others. No student should have to make the choice these two young women were faced with. Sadly, Paige’s story does not have the happy ending that Shawn’s does.

Is this the kind of lesson we want to teach our young people? If we try and “pay it forward” we get slapped in the face. At the very least this young lady deserves an apology for the treatment she received from the camp and from the school district for making her follow their stringent rules. The inflexibility of these two entities cost Paige the opportunity to be a camp counselor and denied that disabled camper the chance to spend another week with someone she and her family specifically requested.